Elon Musk

[Pat Mustard]

Having humanity on another planet is a nice back up, should Earth get hit by something from space.

Earth gets hit by stuff all day, every day. But I assume you’re thinking about a massive asteroid strike, big enough to wipe everything out.

First of all, by the time we’d be able to establish a viable colony on Mars, humankind would likely be extinct already.

Secondly, what’s to prevent Mars from suffering the same sort of impact?

Lastly, how would you convince people to go? Remember - the vast majority of human beings live out their entire lives less than 200km from where they were born.

Boru

In fact because Mars is much smaller and has a much less dense atmosphere, the impact that would be a species destroyer there will be much smaller than the equivalent for Earth.